Ten Too Late
by O0Eternity0O
Summary: What if Alice had not made it back from South America in time? What if she had been, lets say, ten minutes late. The ending to the story would have taken an entirely differnt course, and would have changed Bella's life drastically. Rated T
1. The Beginning of the End

**Disclaimer: I own nothing that involves Twilight =(**

**Personal Note: First fanfic, I havnt read many either, so if there is anything wrong, missing, or not enough of something please tell me. It is almost finals so I am kind of busy will try to update as soon as possible. I do know that in the first few paragraphs some of the sentences come from the Breaking Dawn book. It is to show were my story breaks off. **

Ten Too Late

Caius spoke with eager haste. "The child is an unknown. I see no reason to allow such a risk to exist. It must be destroyed, along with its family." He smiled in expectation.

I fought back a shriek of defiance to answer his cruel smirk.

Marcus lifted his uncaring eyes, seeming to look through us as he voted. "I see no immediate danger. The child is no trouble for now. We can always visit later. Let us leave peacfully." His voice was even fainter than the others'.

None of the guard relaxed their ready positions at his words. Caius's grin showed no sign of faltering. It was as if Marcus hadn't said anything at all.

"I must make the deciding vote, it seems," Aro mused. "We can not know for sure how this child will turn out," Aro continued. "This situation could soon turn into something like the immortal children and in this age that could be disastrous to our secrecy. I'm sorry, but I can pardon all of you, if you would just hand over the child."

At his words I almost exploded in rage. How could he? Ask for _my_ baby as though she was an object to posses. If I was still human my face would have burned the deep purple that would have looked familiar on Charlie. I could hardly stand still at the moment, and definitely not much more than a few more seconds.

"I'm sorry Aro," Carlisle quickly answered, "but Renesmee is part of our family now. If you wish to have her, you will have to get through us first. I saw Caius' expectant smile suddenly turn sinister. There was no way to avoid what was about to come.

"I am upset that is has to end this way old friend." Aro said sincerely, like he truly was upset about having to destroy Carlisle and the rest of us.

That was when I felt Jane's power stab into a few different places in my shield one after another. It was a strange feeling, like being poked by a wire with a slight charge. I knew it was there but it was only mildly distracting.

Jane's smile of pleasure turned abruptly into a deep frown. None of her chosen victims were on the ground, none of them in intense pain. I smiled towards her an innocent but quiet obvious smile. She almost lost it right there.

Jane screeched and snarled towards my direction. She was about to spring when her brother Alec pressed his hand into her shoulder, anchoring her to the ground. I heard Alec whisper to her, the sound carried across by a frosty breath of air. "Do not worry, it is my turn now."

I nearly panicked when the slightly visible mist blew towards our side. It could only be seen though, like trying to see the side of a house through the heat of a barbeque.

The creeping menace, the downfall of perhaps hundreds of vampires, many of them protecting a child they loved just as much as we all loved Renesmee, had almost reached us. I fought the coming hysterics. Edward's arm around my shoulder, which I hadn't noticed during my brief breakdown, instantly soothed me. Then it hit.

The mist floated into the perimeter of my mental shield and… broke upon its side. I heard gasps of awe from both sides of the field. The mist of death moved up the side of the shield and continued to climb. In only a few seconds it had covered the entire outside and threatened to break through, should I slip up and my shield fall.

It took only a short time for the rest to realize what the problem was. Most of them had been in the chamber when Aro had admired my shielded mind. In total synchronization the whole guard turned in my direction. That _did _alarm me a bit, though I should have expected to be the number one target.

"Do not worry." Zafrina quickly said towards Edward's suddenly frightened look. "I will keep them off of her."

"No, I will do it myself." Edward replied grimly. I could tell by the look on his face that he hardly wanted to leave me at a time like this.

"You have to get Demetri, don't worry, Zafrina will do her job wonderfully." I hugged Edward closer to me and hugged him tightly.

I heard Jake whimper behind me. I turned and saw the look of pain in his deep brown eyes. I walked towards him and wrapped my hands through his coarse coat. I quietly whispered into his ear so only someone on our side of the field would have been able to hear.

"As soon as they come running towards us I want you and Nessie out of here. Do not stop until you absolutely have to, and then check the bag." Jake whined again only lower. "I know Jake, Ill miss you too. I love you Nessie." I told my daughter, and she looked back with understanding eyes. "I love you too Mom." My daughter said. She would miss me just as much. At least she had Jake.

It was hard letting her go, but I knew that if this battle went terribly wrong like it most likely would, she would be as safe as was possible in a world like ours.

I returned to Edward's side, and looked across the snow covered field towards the sinister wall of black capes. All of those dark foreboding figures were all tensed and ready to launch in a seconds notice. This fight would be lethal.

Suddenly I was afraid, not for me, but for my family, and for my friends. I was new to this life, and had expected to be with Edward forever. Three months seemed quiet a deal less than forever, but maybe this would be my forever. I turned towards the line of guards and knew I only had to wait a short while.

Seven seconds to be exact. Without any signal I noticed the guard leapt forward, a good half of them heading straight towards me. Our side exploded into action as well, barreling across the suddenly tightly packed space. Snow was shot into the air as the wolves got going, the vampires leaving barely a footprint.

Benjamin, who had stayed in the back to safeguard me, pulled a large red lighter out of his pocket and held it in a relaxed grip within his left hand, his thumb in the ready position. I wondered what it might be for but decided now was not the right time to ask.

From the corner of my eye I saw a half dozen wolves working in union to take down three Volturi guards defending themselves. I noticed Vladimir about to collide with Alec and Jane being laid upon by Kate. I tried to find Edward but violently my attention was grabbed by a more direct matter.

Four Volturi had made it through and were headed directly at me and my three protectors. They were almost upon us when they suddenly veered sharply to the right. Zafrina jumped on the back of one and Ben another. They quickly tore the two apart before the others had a chance to react.

While the other two searched for the three of us through the haze of their illusions, Ben had his lighter flickering to life. As the fire grew to blinding proportions I realized what the lighter was for. With his control of the elements he could use that one small flame the create a ball of fire big enough to burn a forest… or the shredded pieces of a freshly mauled vampire.

The two piles of vampire burned far quicker than they would have in a normal fire. The blistering heat almost scorched me from the distance I was from it. In just a few seconds all that was left was a small pile of ash, already blowing softly away with a fresh breeze, and my skin had probably warmed a few degrees.

Zafrina had already finished off the third guard and had the final one wandering off about twenty yards to the right. Ben burned the third body and then just covered the fourth guard with the live flame. In its unnatural heat the guard didn't have time escape before he too, ended up like his three brothers.

I looked at Benjamin with a sudden new respect. "Impressive Ben," I congratulated when our small corner of the battle had calmed down. With him on the other side, even with my shield we would have lost the battle easily. It was already hard enough.

With our assailants dispatched I had time to look up towards the bigger battle. I finally spotted Edward. Demetri had obviously lost the battle and fairly quickly too. As I watched Edward pulled apart the rest of the headless body. I felt no pity for a vampire such as him.

Alec was losing his fight with Vladimir and it looked to be soon over. Kate and Jane were making an even battle of it and the wolves were still working together to bring down smaller groups of vampire guards.

Behind the lines I could still see Caius, Aro, and Marcus. Caius' smile was just as expectant and would have made me sick if I still could be. Aro looked concerned. His valuable property was getting damaged more than he had expected. Marcus looked bored as he stared with uncaring eyes at a distant, white, mountain top.

Edward had reached me by then. I looked at his smiling face and had a hard time looking away. If we made it through this I would have forever to love him, to be with him. Now I had to focus on the fight and what was going on.

Suddenly and idea came to me. "Go." I told Benjamin. "If we are to lose this fight we will scar them as deeply as possible. If we burn the bodies of the guards they will permanently lose those that fall today. They won't be able to piece together the ashes."

Ben smiled at my idea, but his face became stern and rigid. "I am to protect you. I will make sure nothing gets within…"

"Do not worry about it Benjamin." Edward interrupted. "I have taken care of Demetri I will not be leaving her side for the rest of this fight. We will trade places."

Ben almost looked like he wished to argue but thought better of it when he saw Edward's face. Even as I watched Benjamin reached the first Volturi pile and was getting ready to burn it.

As I looked into the field once more I saw Rosealie being lead from Emmett in a taunting matter. If she left him he would have to deal with three of the other guards by himself but Rose looked too deep into bloodlust. I could already see how this event would turn out.

Just then my fears came into reality. Rose was led far enough away for her to have no chance of making it back in time. Just as Emmett was tackled under the weight of the other vampires Rose noticed.

He distracter jumped on her too but Rosealie hardly noticed.

"NO!" Rosealie screamed. With a strength and ferocity bourn of rage she quickly tore apart the guard who had latched onto her chest and was trying to crush her. She got to Emmett and ripped apart another of the guards by herself before Quil and Embry were at her side helping with the other two.

I knew they were too late. As soon as we I heard Emmett's cry of pain suddenly cut short I knew they had torn him to pieces.

Even as I saw this, my vision picked up two vampires tearing apart a wolf. Was that Paul? I could hear the cries of other vampires, some I recognized others I did not. It was almost too painful to think about.

If we ended up making it through this Emmett could piece himself back together and would be fine in a matter of days. Any wolves torn to pieces tonight would stay that way forever.

I looked around the white field and now noticed drops of red that were out of place. Only the wolves would bleed. I saw the bloody shredded remains of three wolves. One of the bodies was Paul's; yes it was him I saw torn apart. The other two were bodies I didn't recognize. They must have been two of the six new wolves that had become involved in my battle. I noticed a trail of blood pointed towards the edge of the forest. One had survived long enough to get away. Maybe he had even gone back to the reservation.

I couldn't breathe. Knowing how permanent Paul's fate was made me realize how awful this fight really was. Victory or defeat, I was going to lose people I knew forever. There was no good way this could end.

We would win though, I promised myself. "Yes, yes we will." I swore to myself out loud. "For Emmett."

Edward looked down towards me from talking to Zafrina. Had I missed all that? No, I remembered now. "Try to blind some from here, it will be an amazing help to everyone."

"I am doing my best." She replied in her slight accent.

"Thanks, that's all anyone can ask in a fight such as this."

Edward curled his arm around my waist and pulled me into him. It was meant to reassure but I didn't think anything could do that just right now.

"We will make it through, all of us." Edward promised me. Would we? I wanted to believe but could I after seeing all of this? Even if Emmett lived and we made it through, I would always remember the awful sound he made in his agony.

Ten minutes into this horrifying battle and I wondered vaguely how much longer before I went crazy? Or we all died.

**If you liked the story tell me! If you didnt... tell me that too! If you didnt like it tell me if there is anything I can improve on. These stories are more for you than for me. I read your stories if I want something good to spend time on. Thanks!**


	2. The Return of Family

**Disclaimer: I dont own Twilight... bummer**

**Note: Second Chapter obviously. Slightly longer than first chapter, and I expected this to take awhile to be written. I know the first part is extremely boring but I thought it important to how the story is being told. Enjoy!**

Ten Too Late Chapter 2

I was tired. Not physically, that was hardly possible for a vampire, but mentally. My mind was sick of all the running, was sick of all the thinking and planning. I could not take anymore of it. It was a good thing we were headed back to Washington.

The four of us continued to run through the snow covered forest. Small icicles hung from the branches of dormant trees and snow piled around their bases. It was winter in Forks. It might have almost been beautiful, if I had not known what lay hidden in their depths.

I thought back to the night we had left the Cullens. Alice had pulled me out of the house explaining her need to "see" without Jake or Nessie's interference. I had been confused, the main emotion she was projecting was anxiety. I could tell the rest of the them, Carlisle, Emse, Rose, Emmett, Bella, Edward and Renesmee, confused.

I still didn't think of Jake as a family member. I doubted I ever would. If his smell did not scare me off, then the knowledge that he hated my family would tempt me to get rid of him.

I wouldn't do it though. Bella loved him, and Edward loved her. The only way Jacob was going to be taken care of was by one of them. I was content to wait until that moment, to at least see it.

We had left the house quickly, neither of really in the right kind of clothes to be running like we had. We both leapt across the river within a half second of each other. Alice had not even bothered to add a few flip to her flight. Was there something she wasn't telling me?

After we got into the forest and a fair distance from the house I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a halt. She was still worried so I sent out to her a wave of calm. It seemed to help immediately.

"What is going on Alice? You might be able to put on a straight face in front of the others, but I can tell you are worried about something. What did you see?"

"It was awful." Alice said softly. She buried her head into my shoulder and I held it there for a moment.

"Tell me." I prompted her. What ever it was it worried me more not knowing.

"It…we…" she sobbed once more and I pulled her closer. "I saw the Volturi. It wasn't just them. It was a fight, with dozens of vampires on each side. I saw Emmett…lose."

I knew what she meant. Not exactly dead, but he was as close as you could get without being burned. That meant that they were strong enough to get Emmett down, or at least distract the others around him efficiently.

"I only saw one way to stop it," she had interrupted my thinking. "We need to find witnesses, but not the kind the others are looking for. We need to find a half vampire."

"We don't even know if any others exist or were to look." I said to her.

"We need to leave. Make them believe we have left." I could hear the pain in Alice's voice, and her emotions were full of it. "We will go to South America." She explained. "Picking up any other nomads on the way would help them I'm sure. Aro has to believe it too though. So they must believe it…"

Alice had danced off at a nearly blinding speed deeper into the forest, further into the forest. She stopped after a minute and turned towards me, her face once again full of thought.

"I must warn Bella to get Nessie out if she can. Stay here," Alice commanded me. Now I was the one who was confused, but Alice returned shortly. She had in her hand a small piece of paper, covered in writing. I could smell Bella's human scent still lingering on the pages.

Alice wrote a quick note on the paper and then we continued on into the forest. I could tell when we reached wolf territory. The smell was unmistakable.

A heard the heartbeat before I saw the wolf. The smell grew to nearly staggering heights. A dark black wolf calmly paced into view between two moss covered trees. The muscles under the wolf's skin rippled with each step he took towards me and Alice.

"Good evening Sam." Alice said slowly.

Sam was joined on each side by another wolf.

"I request passage to the sound." Alice said boldly.

Sam stood still for a moment, his liquid eyes looking thoughtfully towards us. He turned and walked into the trees a few yards and behind a tree. When the former wolf returned he was wearing a pair of ripped jeans only.

"I will let you go, if only you allow me to escort you until the shore."

Alice smiled softly. "Thank you Sam. I have something else for you." She handed him a note. I could almost sense Sam's confusion; the other wolves were nearly completely emotionless.

"Don't tell Jacob I have been here until the Carlisle comes looking. Follow these instructions to the letter, or else maybe all our lives will be forfeit. The letter can be given to Carlisle when he comes here." Alice finished and looked hard at Sam, as though daring him to object.

"Very well, I see nothing wrong with your request." He ran into the trees and shortly returned in his wolf form. It took us only minutes to reach the coast, and then we were across the sound searching.

We first encountered Peter and Charlotte and it hadn't taken me much to convince them to journey to Forks and speak with the others. After that encounter there was little else until we had reached South America.

When we had encountered the three Amazons it had taken amazing persuasiveness on Alice's part and probably the calming effect of my power to get them to split of. We needed Kachiri, the other two were sent north to witness. Zafrina had desperately wanted to stay though she still hadn't known what we were looking for.

It took only a week after that for Kachiri to track down Nahuel and his aunt Huilen. Nahuel was as eager to get back as I was, but Huilen was reluctant. She did not believe this one child was worth their leaving their home for the first time.

When Huilen realized that Nahuel was going with or without her, she made her decision. After that we had raced home, we did have a ten minute delay in Rio but would that have made much of a difference?

I was brought abruptly into the present. Alice had stopped nearly instantaneously and I ran a few feet more before I noticed and another few before I could stop. I was by her side in less than a quarter of second but she was already on her knees.

I didn't ask, she projected fear and anger like those wolves radiated that awful stench. We had not made it in time to stop the fight, but we were still close…

Before I pulled Alice to her feet I turned towards Nahuel, though he seemed to know what I was going to ask.

"I came to help and if fighting is what will help now then so be it." His jaw tightened as if daring me to object. I almost laughed.

"Huilen," Nahuel turned towards his aunt. "This is not something I would ask of you. If you return to the airport, I will join you when I am through here." Huilen was not at all pleased by his words.

"You think I am going to wait around for you to _maybe_ come back? If this is life or death I am staying to find out which and don't you try to tell me otherwise." I would not complain about her resolution, we needed all the help we could get.

In the few seconds that our conversation had taken Alice had gotten to her feet by herself and started ahead first. I sprinted to get next to her, inches away, paying more attention to her face than were we where going.

The clearing would soon be visible and I could already feel the tide of emotion crashing against my mind like the waves of the sea. Alice's face tightened and it didn't take me long to figure out why.

In the vast pool of feelings one stood out like a sore thumb. Rage, a rage that burned so powerful it would put the sun's heat to shame. Loss, l loss so great that… it was Rose's and I could only think of one thing to cause her to feel such loss. Emmett.

We broke into the clearing and it was a much different scene than I expected to find. We were holding our own, almost like the Volturi were evenly matched. What had happened in our absence? Had Carlisle or Rose or Emmett maybe find a vampire powerful enough to frighten the Volturi?

I first looked towards the Volturi side of the clearing. There was Aro, Caius, and Marcus. Aro looked worried, almost afraid. Caius was too consumed by his overpowering hatred towards power not owned by him. This was no fight for justice and punishment to the upstarts. He was here to eliminate the Cullens, which was us again once more. Marcus dug his foot into the ground to pass the time. Each of them was guarded by another two personal guards each.

The wolves looked to be intact. I could count twelve of them, wait, had more made that change while we me and Alice had taken our leave. Then I noticed the three bodies, maybe the wolves weren't as intact as I had assumed.

"Let's help finish this off." Alice said her anger now showing on the outside, instead of a dull, blank, weary face.

At our approach several of the combatants from both sides of the brawl looked up. Our side recognized us first, and a few let our low cheers and woots. Some of the guards started to fall back at our approach. I could feel their uncertainty and see the unease. Would five more in this fight make the difference? Would more come if the fight didn't end soon?

With this thinking, order or not they would rout, and we would let them. I knew after the battle Alice and me would have to do a lot of explaining. Alice would do most of it. I had just tagged along and offered my talent when needed to help a situation go in the direction we needed it to go.

Alice and I thought in synchronization. We both sprung across the entire emptiness of the white crystal field and slammed into the side of a vampire fending off Seth and one of the new wolves. They had needed the help and Alice had him on the ground instantly. Nahuel, Huilen moved off elsewhere to find someone in need of help. Kachiri went to find Zafrina, darting off into the battle field.

All the pain of failure was poured into her swings and tearing. It was almost as though she was trying to tire herself out, almost as though she wanted to forget. I helped her finish Felix off when she got sidetracked and started punching the torn corpse. It would not start rebuilding for a day at least.

Seth and his wolf brother dashed off to help other of their pack, while me and Alice went to help Rose.

In her rage Rosealie had begun to get reckless. She had taken on a group of four guards by herself. She was surprisingly holding her own, just not doing anything offensive to progress the fight. Her loss would be endless if Emmett didn't make it through, but his body didn't look like it had taken too much abuse. He still had a nice chance at survival.

We got to Rose's side and helped her drive the Volturi a few yards back. She wasn't even surprised to see us and her emotions didn't even falter. I hoped Emmett pulled through. I could have just as miserable a time as she did if he didn't.

"Yes!" I whispered violently to Alice. Aro had been torn by indecision. Had the fight been the wrong way to go? He had lost so many already… but now he was firm in his belief.

"Retreat, retreat my dear ones!" Aro called, his musical voice moving across the vast clearing with ease. "Back the Italy, quickly," Aro continued.

I saw Caius' sure smile falter and then break. He had had no doubts. He would have committed every single vampire soul, except his own of course, to this battle. If he retreated now…

"No, stay, continue to fight! Your master wills it!" Caius returned his voice now full of command. The guards hesitated in their now steady retreat.

"Can you not see the stupidity of it all Brother," Marcus' soft sigh of a voice now ringing with authority. "This battle was a bad idea to begin with; we must get away while we still have the strength to defend our backs!" During his small tirade his voice had raised two octaves.

In a sudden moment of uncontrollable rage Caius lashed out at his brother. In less than a second, Marcus looked like the rest of the fallen vampires.

Everyone on the battle field had stopped and looked at the argument of the ancients. Seeing one fall so easily… it made most of the vampires in the field suddenly uneasy, I could feel it. Even I was disturbed by the vision such an act would leave me with for the rest of my existence.

Caius' emotions were in turmoil. I could feel his pain, his feeling of retribution and his fear. Fear of himself, fear for what he had done.

"Fall back, we… must." Caius could barely get the words through his lips. He was shaken as was just about everyone else on the field.

The guards, their number nearly cut in half, continued their gradual retreat. Near the border to the forest, we all stopped the pursuit.

"No more." Carlisle had said. "Has there not been enough fighting for one lifetime?" Carlisle was pained more by the evidence of bloodlust on friend's and family's faces.

"We have to continue." Rosealie almost screamed. "I will never let any of them live. They will all die for what has happened here today. They are weak, we must hit them while we can!"

"Rose," Carlisle explained slowly "there are people left in the field to burn or… perhaps safe…"

Carlisle's well chosen words struck something in here. Her emotions changed from hatred and loss to worry. She rushed toward Emmett's body and started placing pieces into their correct places; his healing would go faster this way.

While we helped with the burning or examining of bodies we tallied up the dead. The wolves had lost four. Paul and three of the new wolves had been killed from lack of experience or in Paul's place, bad luck. A fifth had been injured too bad to fight but had enough strength to make it home. More vampires were lost than that.

"Stephen is dead!" I heard Kate call out.

"So are Peter and Charlotte" Siobhan called out from across the field.

"Garrett is right here," Maggie shouted her voice of chimes sounding almost uncertain. "It looks as though he might make it through, he is not torn apart too badly."

A rush of air and the quick sound of footsteps followed these words. I looked over and saw Kate hovering over Garret.

"It will be alright," she almost whispered. "You will pull through for me right?" I wasn't even sure if he could hear right now but I was only mildly surprised when a grin spread across his mangled face.

All in all we lost ten permanently including Senna the Amazon, four wolves, Peter and Charlotte, Randal the nomad, and Liam from the Irish coven.

The Volturi lost thirteen guards and one ancient.

"We will talk tomorrow," Carlisle explained briefly to us all. "Cars are available to those who want to hunt. The rest of you can go were you please, but I beg you not to leave until this has been discussed thoroughly."

Even as he said this I knew that Alice and I were not included in the category of 'you can go were you please'. We had a lot of explaining to do.

I looked towards Edward when I thought this and he dipped his head slightly in response.

Alice ran to Bella and Edward and hugged them like she would never let go. Nobody could get Rose away from Emmett. She probably wouldn't move until he had fully recovered… or not.

After the hugging and greetings I pried Alice out of Bella's arms. Wow she was strong. It was the newborn strength.

"I would like to have Alice for a little while longer before we all meet together if you don't mind I smiled wryly."

"She is all yours." Bella said happily. She returned to Edward arms and stared at him with such loving eyes…. Ah! Whenever she did that, such happiness drew me towards her, I wonder if she ever noticed how often I was around her…

"See you guys tonight." I told the others as I dragged Alice towards the house with me. We arrived home before any of the others.

**Hope you liked it, review if you want and tell me if anything needs improvment.**


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